New Year's Eve is this weekend, meaning that most of us are attending parties. For this…
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Winner - At the Stroke

What's more emblematic of New Years Eve than a midnight kiss? Two kids in love were captured with a flash, then ambiance filtered in through the rest of an eight second exposure. Christmas lights were spun in a
circle to create bright concentric rings. Happy New Years! Nikon D70, 20mm, 8", ISO 200, f/32
-Lindsay Trudeau

Copley Square

Taken on Copley Square in just outside the Boston Public Library. There were several thousand people here, dancing and partying while they waited for the fireworks. This was a 30 second exposure, I wrapped my Gorillapod Focus around a lamp post and swung the whole thing around at the 20 second mark. The 2010 ice sculpture was on the square across from the library, and this was the only way I could get both elements into the same shot. Taken with my T2i and Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5. ISO 100, 30-sec, f/22. Post processing in Lightroom 3.5
- Chris Anderson

Light Jockey

To tell you the truth, I nearly forgot about this challenge. I do lighting for a DJ entertainment company, and was working for a NYE party at a nearby temple. When it was time to break down and pack up, I remembered about the shooting challenge and did the best I could. I decided to set my camera up on a tripod and aim it at one of our 200 LED par lights. It has several rows of red, green, and blue LEDs that I can turn on to create any color. I put on my 55-250mm lens, took the camera slightly out of focus, opened the shutter, and slowly zoomed out. So while you can't see any partying, it was at a party. Canon EOS Rebel T3i w/ Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II 9 stop ND Filter(which was actually a christmas gift, lucky for me!) 3.2" Exposure, f/22, ISO 100. Happy New Year!
- Michael Dornisch

Still in the Crowd

I was taking come crowd shots of a local bar/kitchen in Pittsburgh, PA for the establishment's NYE bash and when looking through them the next day for something submit worthy I saw that I caught this couple mid camera phone self portrait. Taken with a Canon Rebel T1i using the kit lens. f/5.6 & ISO1600
- R.J. Schmidt

2012

We and our friends spent our New Year's Eve at our Oakland apartment taking goofy photos using these cheap glow stick swords from Target. The first version of "2012" came out entirely backwards, because everyone spelled it out from their own point of view instead of the camera's. :) We also did a bunch where one person stood still and someone else outlined them in color-very cool.

I shot this with a Canon 30D, Tamron 17-50mm F/2.8 at f/8, ISO 400, 30mm (effectively 48mm with the 1.6x crop factor), and a 15 second exposure. Besides the glow sticks, there was a little available light from the hallway as well as the string of Christmas lights above the couch.
-Christopher Smith

Party person? No. Fire person? Yes.

Not exactly a party person, do not go to, or attend parties. Can't stand the sound or much other of the normal goings of a party. My wife had a friend and her children over with our two kids for the night. Last year, Arizona changed its law to allow ground based consumer fireworks and sparklers. So we bought a box load of fireworks and sparklers and let the kids have fun. So I set my tripod up with my Canon EOS Rebel T2i with the ISO on 100, and the setting of "bulb" with my remote trigger attached, and just clicked the photo and let it run for what ever, several times. The photo attached was for 115 seconds.
- John Hays

Technically Illegal

I was at a friend's house for NYE and I wanted to get a shot with the fire and maybe a friend shooting off some bottle rockets at midnight. Turns out a house down the street wanted to trump the whole neighborhood's fireworks and set off a $10000 professional grade fireworks show at midnight. Thing is it's technically illegal to shoot off fireworks within Tucson city limits (even though they can be sold, so go figure). So this guy obviously was not afraid of any fines. I have a lot of other shots of the fireworks that are cool, but I chose this shot since it has all the action from the partygoers. Shot with a Nikon D5000 w/ 35mm prime lens @ F/13 ISO500 30s exposure
- Brett S.

2012 Already Blows

A group of friends and I traditionally gather for NYE, and we always set off fireworks in the cul-de-sac in front of my house. This year, I clued everyone in to the shooting challenge and we all decided to try to get a really cool shot. This particular explosion is about 8 mini-mortar shells wired together and set off on the ground. Interestingly enough, mortar shells are NOT designed to be set off outside of their dedicated tubes, which is probably why my friends aren't visible in the photo as they booked it to safety as soon as the fuses ignited. We had a blast doing other setups as well, but this one emerged as our personal winner. Shot on a Canon T3i 10mm with a Tamron 10-24mm, f/22, ISO 100, 30" exposure.
-Paul Zwicker

Flamingo

I was working on the Las Vegas Strip near the Caesars Palace fountains and wanted to take some pictures for the contest. I used a Canon T2i with a kit 35mm-80mm lens. After watching the tutorial I decided to put a polarized filter on it and set the exposure to 15sec, iso 100, and f13.
I took maybe 350 pictures and only 3 were really good. I have magic lantern installed on my camera and it was taking 1 picture every 16 seconds, so as soon as one was done another was about to be taken and I could get back to work.
-Ryan Floyd

Midnight in Paris

Confetti and Streamers

Due to circumstance, I was home (happily) with my family for a quiet NYE. Because of the drought this summer, there were no fireworks in Austin for the 4th of July. This has led to much pent up desire in the hearts of Austinites to go wild tonight. I stepped out onto my patio to the smell of sulfur, the pops of the firecrackers, and the sparks of fireworks. So awesome.

I decided to make my own fireworks - in a sort of reverse method as described for the challenge. I set my camera on a long exposure but moved my camera instead of the lights - since we're still decked out for Christmas. I like the digital effects of the LED lights - gives it a confetti look. Not a party in the strict sense, but fun nonetheless. 4 second exposure, F/8 , ISO-80, Happy New Year!!!
Karen Tarlow

Drunk Goggles

I was really quite drunk at some club my friend invited me to, I was taking photos of everything but had no flash. I believe the exposure was only 1 second. The film was ILFORD HP5 ISO 400. I scanned in the negative using a plustek opticfilm 7200. I took this on my konika fc-1 with a 50mm f 1.8 lens.
-Ryan Aylsworth

What can I say? To those of you who were committed enough to ignore the partying around you to dutifully capture a few photos for a Shooting Challenge...what is wrong with you people?!? I was asleep at midnight and it was glorious. You can find wallpaper-sized photos over on flickr.